For a change, Roy Williams enjoyed himself at the ACC's Operation Basketball

CHARLOTTE – Roy Williams has never been shy about expressing his dislike for the all-day gabfest that is the ACC’s Operation Basketball. This year, however, the North Carolina coach has found something even less appealing than the league’s annual preseason media event.

Major surgery.

Williams was originally scheduled to have a tumor removed from his right kidney on Wednesday. But when a biopsy last week showed that the growth was benign, the procedure was cancelled and Williams was free to join the ACC’s other 11 coaches in the festivities in Charlotte.

“Compared to 3½ hours of surgery, this is a walk in the park,” Williams said, generating a chuckle from the reporters gathered two-deep around his table. “I told (ACC associate commissioner for communications) Brian Morrison, ‘let’s go ahead and do two of them.”

Williams’ Ernie Banks impression was an outward sign of his promise to “stop and smell the roses” more than he did before last month’s cancer scare.

Because he’s just as intense a competitor as ever, however, there are still times in which he has to catch himself – especially at practice, where he’s supposed to be taking it easy while recovering from an earlier operation to remove a similar tumor from his left kidney.

“I think I’m being pretty good,” Williams said. “The first practice, I said I wasn’t going to go wacko. But about 10-minutes into practice was the first one, and I only had one more the rest of practice. I promised (his wife) Wanda that I’d be much better the second practice. Then I had to spend all day bribing all the players and assistant coaches to not tell her what I did.”

By all accounts, the players followed through on their vow of secrecy. They’ve also made a concerted effort not to give their coach any further reason to get upset.

“We’re trying to do everything we’re told to do right so he won’t strain any muscles yelling at us,” junior forward Reggie Bullock said.

It’s a gesture Williams said he appreciates.

“They really are trying,” Williams said. “(Tuesday), I did some demonstration kind of thing and it hurt like crazy. I grabbed at it and the kids were like ‘Are you okay coach? I was like ‘Yeah, why don’t you do it the right way so I don’t have to stop? But they really are trying to do good things in practice.”